10 TV Shows That Should Have Quit When They Were Ahead

8. Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars was never a good show. However, for a while it was one of the best bad shows going. By the end though, it was just a plain old bad television.

The central plot revolves around a group of four friends who are being taunted by a mysterious ‘A’ in the wake of their classmate’s death. There’s some good schlocky tension and typical teen drama, but the show gets more ridiculous as it goes on.

The classmate returns from the dead, several main characters are ‘A’ (but then they aren’t), a teacher dates two of his high school students and is played off as the good guy while the finale involves a bizarre ‘there was an evil British twin all along!’ reveal.

Just like Alison DiLaurentis, the show then came back from the dead as The Perfectionists, although only Sasha Pieterse and Janel Parrish remain from the core cast.

Keeping the twist that Mona was A until later and bowing out with that would’ve been better, but the show decided to reveal their hand early. After that, it was scrambling, but there were still more chances to save the ending.

The dollhouse episodes were probably peak Pretty Little Liars, but rather than leading to anything impactful, it just sort of fizzled out. Hanna’s PTSD was explored with a real lack of grace and a potentially great finale was wasted.